After the Fall
by Kitte-Wolf
Summary: A plane crash. A cobra. A tiger. And then the plane ride home. The lives of these freshman have been changed, maybe for the better, maybe for the sadder.
1. Chapter 1

Well, this sucks.

I'm trapped on a plane for fourteen hours with my class, which quite possibly could be the single most annoying class in this universe. Not to mention our mirror dimension or the various pocket universes contained within it. And, to make things worse we couldn't even choose who we sat with. Our teacher put us with random people so we could 'expand our horizons' or something like that.

So now I'm sitting next to a window, my head smashed against it as I stare out at the world flying by beneath us and trying to fall asleep while a rather upset Valerie sulks next to me since a rather pissed-off Dash is sitting next to her.

I don't mind sitting next to Valerie, except that she's so upset. So now I don't get any decent company at all since Sam is up front squished in between Paulina and Stacey, the shortest volleyball player ever. Tucker is a couple rows behind me, with the aisle seat next to Mikey and Jordan, who… honestly, for being in band and playing the trombone, is pretty hot. She's a girl by the way.

I sigh, leaning further away from the people I share my row with as Valerie pulls out a book from her carry-on bag, which also contains a laptop and a small ectogun. As to why they didn't take the ectogun, it's a gift from my parents to the Red Huntress and it's easily hideable. It's shaped like a thing of lip color. Not that anyone in their right mind would wear neon green lip color…

Next to her, Dash is leaning forward to talk to Jason, a friend of his who is on the soccer team. In all honesty, Jason isn't that bad. He's never harassed anyone.

I groan. Whoever is sitting behind me is jabbing their long and painfully sharp knees into my back and needless to say I am not enjoying it. Trying to tune out the annoyances, I close my eyes and try to get some sleep.

When I wake back up, it's because there is a lot of turbulence. As in, so much turbulence that people are throwing up and screaming.

"Please remain calm. It seems as though we are having some turbulence. Buckle your seat belts and do not get up under any circumstance."

Pursing her lips, Valerie sets her book down with a bookmark in her page and reaches into her bag. She pulls out the lipstick gun, slipping it into her bra and I pretend I didn't see that. Dash was whimpering and gripping the arms of the seat, while behind me the person finally stopped jabbing their legs into my back.

That's when all the lights shut off.

Looking outside the window as people scream, I can see endless ocean broken by the occasional island. All I can do is take off my seatbelt, and hope we land in water close to an island that everyone can swim to shore. I had already grabbed my belt- yes I am taking ideas from Batman and Robin- and had clipped it around my waist over the frayed and knotted rope that keeps my too-big jeans from falling down. The belt has my own tube of ecto-lipstick, a length of wire/cord that my parents engineered to be unbreakable, and a tube of black paint to name a few of the items it contains. Placing my hand against the window, I watch the water continue to rise up to meet us. I can distantly hear Lancer yelling something, and the regular passenger screaming- not to mention my classmates as well. No one is calm.

Except for me, Sam, and Valerie.

When we hit the water, the hit is most possibly the most jarring hit of my life. People do get up out of their seats, and somehow Sam, Tucker, Valerie, and I find ourselves together opening the exit at the back of the plane- a Boeing 767. We also find ourselves shoving people out of it- Including Lancer, Dash, Jordan, and Star- until we see no one coming towards the back. Sam and Tucker are the first two out, followed by me and Valerie. Grabbing Tucker, Sam swims strongly for the nearest island after hitting the water. I take note of which direction they're going, and when I hit the water I reach for Valerie and tug her in my direction. Somehow she picks up on my subtle cues and we swim after Sam and Tucker, both of us catching up to them. We keep swimming through the waves, ignoring the grey skies and whipping wind around us. When my feet hit ground, I pull myself upright. Sam already is pushing ahead to the mostly dry land, where we can see people already there. When all four of us finally emerge all the way from the water, we can tell that the majority of our class has ended up here. Lancer is trying to take roll, but no one can hear him over the waves and wind until someone points at us and screams something in a kind of relieved voice.

"Over here!" I can hear someone- maybe Star- shout, as if we don't already know which way to go. We trudge over, with Tucker plopping down hard on the sand while Sam paced to keep her muscles warm.

"We need to find shelter!" I can hear someone yell, and I nod. Looking up, I raise my voice.

"Get inland and stay together!" I shout, and Dash stands up. Our eyes meet for a second, and while underneath his periwinkle blues, I can see trepidation but acceptance.

"Everybody follow me!" He yells, and without hesitating everyone stands up- even Tucker. I make my way over to him, followed by Sam, and point towards a small gap in the dense forest. He nods- he gets what I was pointing to, and starts to lead everybody towards it. When we reach it, we follow what looks like a trail for a short ways, until it was overgrown by ferns and vines and other plants that only Sam knows.

"We're gonna have to stop here," Dash says, and Paulina sighs in relief. Sam crosses her arms, Glaring at Dash.

"We can just make our way through the brush," Sam replies. "I could tell you which plants are poisonous, you know."

"Everyone's tired though," Dash says, looking out at the panting and tired class. There are a few athletes- Jason, Kwan, Stacey, and Dash included- that aren't too fatigued but other than that handful of athletes and ghost hunters everyone else is tired and looking like their feet are falling off.

"How about we rest here for maybe half an hour and then keep going," Valerie suggests, walking to the front. Paulina and Star nod in relief, just hearing the word rest in that sentence and then clocking out.

"Fine," Sam sighs, huffing, and I walk over closer to her.

"I don't want to stop either," I say, wrapping my arms around her. She draws closer to me, even if I am colder than normal. She's warm, and I enjoy the heat she gives off. There are a couple of couples doing this as well, and some best friends getting in on the shared heat too. Tucker makes his way over, and the three of us sit down. Dash and Kwan are right next to each other- not cuddling, but definitely sharing a little bit of heat.

When everyone sits down to rest, that's when the first bolt cracks across the sky. Paulina screams, and I bolt to my feet along with everyone else.

"That's it!" Valerie yells. This time she's taking the lead. "We need to keep going now. The storm's only going to get worse!" Spurred on by those words, Sam stands right next to the ghost hunter as we whack a path for our tired classmates. I'm right next to Kaitlyn, one of the cheer squad fliers. She whacks just as hard as I do, and I guess that I'm happy she's helping out. I even get a glimpse of Paulina and Star helping, despite groans and exclamations of "Oh my gosh! That vine just ruined my hair!" As if the storm and salty swim hadn't already.

Lightning continues to crack across the sky, followed by thunder and the downpour's increase.

"Is it just me," Kaitlyn yells to Kwan, who is right next to her, "Or is the ground starting to slope upward?"

"It's not just you," he yells back, and that's when I'm clued in to the little rivulets streaming past my feet. The sky continues to darken as the sun sets- an orange hue lights up the clouds as it gets harder and harder to see.

We continue fighting our way hopefully towards shelter until there's a yell.

"I found a cave!" Stacey shouts back at us, and we all move in her direction. All of us are tired, and I'm willing to bet the other half of my life that most everyone's muscles are burning. Mine are a little fatigued, but then again every day of my life is spent fighting. By now, I've built up some fairly good stamina.

Once we all get into the cave, Mr. Lancer stands up. He's starting to sort us into sleeping groups- boys on one side of the cave, girls on the other. When all of us are with our respective genders, he lays down in the middle of the cave.

I wait, eyes open in the half-light of the cave, my ghost-augmented sight picking out perfect details of the rock. There was a band of crystals over where Star was curled up, and some roots hung down over Kwan. After Lancer, and most everyone else, had started snoring, I pull myself to my fight. I'm not the only one, as Sam and Valerie rise. Tucker is already asleep, and the three of us meet at the mouth of the cave where rain is still coming down- not as hard, but harder than usual in Amity.

"I'm not the only one deciding to keep watch," Valerie says to us, and I smirk. I'm sitting next to Sam on one rock, while Valerie's on the other. Sometime in the night, I fall asleep, to be woken up by Sam. Valerie is asleep as well, and Sam curls up against me to sleep. Apparently they decided to have shifts. I shrug, not really caring as I stare out through the drizzle. I watch as the rain thins further, and it's stopped completely by the time everyone else wakes up. When Lancer notices the three of us on the rocks- Sam and Valerie have woken up- he walks over with his arms crossed.

"And what were you three doing last night?" He asks, staring rather scrutinizingly down at us.

"Not what you're thinking," Sam snaps back, and I chuckle.

"We were keeping watch incase anything… Unsavory, came last night," Valerie gives him the answer he wants, and he nods.

"Good thinking," he says, as we stand up and walk back over to the main group. Everyone's getting up, and Dash crosses his arms.

"We need to find food," he says, and Lancer nods.

"Let's split everybody up into groups so that we can find more food," Paulina suggests, and I just stare at them.

"Shouldn't we find fresh water first?" Kyle, an English nut, speaks up.

"If you want you can do that," Kwan says. "We need food."

"Everybody split up into groups of three or so!" Lancer says, and everyone begins to do so until Valerie yells.

"If we all split up, how will we find out way back?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"Maybe we should go back to the beach and make camp there," Jason suggests. "Then, assuming we get some sort of fishing system set up and the crash didn't kill all the fish then we could have pretty much all the food we want."

"See there! That is a great idea," Sam says, and Valerie, Tucker, and I chuckle. Eventually everyone decides to go with Jason's idea, and we start to trek back to where we swam ashore. With the sun peeking through the clouds, it's a lot warmer than it was yesterday while it was pouring buckets on our heads. Everyone's clothes are dry and salt-free, having been washed by the downpour.

When we reach the beach, some people split off to find food and water that will help keep us going with the fish. They leave Valerie, Sam, Tucker, Jason, Kyle, and I behind, and we all circle up almost like a varsity football huddle.

"We should work on the camp for when they get back," Kyle suggests, and everyone nods.

"I'll make a firepit," Jason says. "I've been camping in the Rockies before. Tucker, want to help?" Tucker shrugs, and the two of them walk off to find rocks.

"We should start making little huts or something," Kyle says, and I nod.

"We'll need vines to maybe tie palm fronds together over a framework of branches," Valerie suggests.

"I… I have a knife," I say, rather cautiously. Kyle looks at me, an eyebrow raised.

"How'd you sneak that past customs?" He asks. I shake my head, suppressing a smirk. He and Valerie get the idea. "Maybe you and your knife can come with me for vines while Val and Sam work on finding downed tree limbs and fronds."

"There might also be parts of the plane we could salvage that could wash up on shore," Sam says, pointing to a piece of white metal gleaming in the sand. Kyle nods.

"Well… Uh… Let's get going," he says, and I follow him into the forest in search of vines. Honestly, it wasn't going to take much searching.

"And may we hold a moment of silence for the Boeing 767 that went down in the Pacific Ocean while on its way to Australia from LAX. On board were fourty-three local Casper High students, as well as their teacher, Mr. Lancer. We hope and pray that search parties find any survivors in a timely manner, although we are still searching for the exact crash site.

From what was being transmitted to air control, the Boeing 767 had encountered a rather strong storm. Just last night, that storm was named Tropical Cyclone Travis."

"Jack!" A woman in a blue jumpsuit calls, turning off the TV and running to get her husband. She wraps her arms when she finds him, burying her head in his orange jumpsuit. "Danny's plane crashed…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Important notice**

**I do understand that probably everyone in this is OOC. But do understand this was a sudden happening. I wrote the entire story in one night because the idea would not go away. I hope you enjoy and thank the anon that pointed out the formatting problems that I'm having :)**

* * *

My knife easily cuts through the vine I'm slicing at. I wrap this one around my arm, and over my head so it rests like the Miss Outstanding Teen sash. Nearby, Kyle has more vines wrapped around his torso in the same manner. I'm about to reach and cut another one when he stops me.

"That should be enough for now. Let's get back to the beach." I nod, and follow him. When we reach the beach, we can see Tucker and Jason arranging some round and rather rough grey stones in a ring and digging out the center. Sam and Valerie are carrying a rather large branch together towards a pile of rather large branches. Making our way over to them, I shove my knife in my belt and pull the vines off over my head and drop them in a large pile. Kyle follows suit, and sits down to lean against a tree.

"You guys need help?" I ask Sam and Valerie. "Like… With arranging the branches so we can tie the vines."

"Sure we'd like some help," Sam replied, helping Valerie pick up the large branch they'd just set down. "Grab that other big one." I walk over, wrapping my hands around one. "NO! Not that one! The other one!" Letting go with a smirk, I grab the other big one and heft it upwards. I carried it on one shoulder over to where Sam and Valerie had pushed theirs into the ground. I set mine down, larger end first, in the sand, before pushing it so it connects with their branch. Valerie moves to grab mine, and following her cue, I go back to the pile to grab the other big one and carry it over. I brace it against the ground again, before motioning Kyle over.

"Grab one of the vines," I tell him, and he does so as he makes his way over. Walking under where all our branches connect, he reaches up and starts trying to wind them around the apex until Jason walks over, takes the vine from Kyle, and winds it around where all the branches meet. Having wrapped it around enough times, he ties it tight without looking at his hands and Valerie, Sam, and I let go. It thankfully doesn't fall down, and Sam and Valerie begin to tie palm fronds on for cover. It's big enough that eight or nine- maybe ten if everyone squeezes- could fit under and sleep.

"We're gonna need more vines," Kyle says, looking at the rapidly-diminishing pile.

"Well, let's go get some more," I reply, and we walk back out into the woods together. I find a nice long vine, and wrap my hand around it. I slice it off in two places before handing the length of green to Kyle. He wraps it around his torso sash-style and we continue.

The sun has reached it's zenith when we walk back out onto the beach. There's the framework of another hut being put up, and walking over, Kyle hands a length of vine to Jason before taking the branch he was holding so Jason could tie the top. I drop my vines in a pile, and when the second hut's framework is stable, Kyle drops his off with mine. This time we help to tie on palm fronds.

We have three huts set up, with the framework for a fourth ready when the first group returns to the beach. Tucker is crouched over a pile of kindling and tinder in the fire pit, hitting a pair of rocks together. The friction is creating sparks. Catching sight of us, the group makes their way over. The sun is sinking dangerously close to the horizon, and from what I can see all that this group has is some thorns in their clothes and long, thin stick that's a bit pointy at the end.

"Hey!" Jayden, the leader of that group and a guy who has an obsession with survival television shows, shouts at us. "Maybe we should find logs or something for people to sit on."

"We didn't see any while we were collecting materials," I say. "So for now I guess it's sand for us." The fire finally blazes into life, Tucker stepping back to sit on a slight bump in the sand. I pulled out my knife, and grabbed a smaller stick from the pile. I have done this before, but I'm still not very good at it. Gripping the stick in one hand and the knife in the other, I begin to flick the blade over the wood towards the end of the stick, whittling away the end to a point. I'm still whittling when the next group arrives. The sky is already staining red, and Roy, the son of a sailor, smiles.

"Why are you smiling?" Shasta, a Native girl, asks.

"Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailors delight," he replies. Seeing confused looks he elaborates. "It's a saying. If the sunrise is red there will be a storm. If the sunset is red there won't be." Looks of understanding dawn on people's faces as they get it. Another group returns, and it's twilight by the time the last few are back. We sit around the fire, stomachs rumbling and throats dry. Star and Paulina are already curled up in one of the huts, and a few of their popular friends join them. Looking around, I realize that there's only about thirty of us.

Some of us didn't survive the crash.

Looking around again, I can see most everyone is covered in scratches, dirt, and dried-on sweat. Everybody has thorns and burrs in their clothes, and looking down I return to whittling my stick. I whittle into the night, keeping my ears open, until I have a spear. Setting my project down, I walk over to where the few people that don't fit in the huts are curled up. Poking Sam awake, she nods and takes my place on the rock as I take her place in the pile. Curling up, I'm awake all night, wondering. How worried is everyone? They're probably all worried out of their minds… Getting up, I nod at Sam and she nods back as I make my way out towards the rising tide to sit on a large rock. The rock doesn't get covered by the tide, nor will the tide cut me off from the beach so I sit down and watch the sky.

The sky is turning pink and growing lighter when the first people back at the camp stir. Hearing groans over the waves, I hop down off of my rock and walk back. All the people who have been sleeping outside were awake, and a few people make their ways out of the huts. They end up waking up everybody else, and we're all sitting around the firepit staring at each other. We can hear each other's stomachs rumbling.

"So, should groups head out in search of water again?" Dash asks, and Valerie vehemently nods her head. Dash's voice was raspy.

"Kaitlyn, you're coming with me and Star again, right?" I hear Paulina whisper to the girl next to her, and Kaitlyn nods. The group splits back up, shuffling some people around, and instead of staying and working on the camp I find myself walking along the shore with Jordan, Stacey, and a guy named Dante who ran long-distance and threw Jav in track. I'm leading, and thankfully I'm able to push hard. No one says anything, instead there's just the occasional cough from one of us.

The beach starts to slope up about mid-morning, and it turns rockier as we keep going. By noon, we're carefully picking our way through the rocks and going at a crawling pace so we don't fall down the slope. I can hear Jordan panting behind me, and I'm almost considering taking a rest when I begin to hear it. Subtly, I pick up the pace, until the sound is a roar in my ears- and they can hear it to.

"Is that waterfall?" Stacey asks, speeding up. We all do, until we reach level ground. It's stone, and we can see a river pouring off the face of a cliff. There's mud with grass, and carefully we pick our way over after Dante warning us about wet stone. I cup my hands, my group doing the same, and greedily sip from the water collected in them. I drink seconds, thirds, until my throat isn't so pained anymore. The water tastes like purity, of course it could just be our dehydration telling us that.

The way back down towards the beach doesn't take as long, although we're still the last group back. The fire's already going, and when we sit down everyone can see our smiles.

"We found water," I say, and they all grin.

"We found coconut trees," Paulina replied, and I could see some coconuts in a pile on the ground. "We don't have anything to open them up with, though." I stand back up and make my way over, pulling my knife from its spot in my belt and pick up a coconut. I stab a hole through the outer husk, and carefully hand it to the Latina.

"Careful, don't spill any of it," I say, smiling, as she holds the fruit to her mouth and drinks the liquid. After she's done, she sets it down as I continue to puncture the shells and pass around the coconuts to the girls first. There aren't enough for all twelve of the girls, but the few that do get drinks smile and are a lot happier. After they are all done drinking, I take what's left and put them in a pile. No one really gives me any odd looks, except for a few, until Shasta speaks up.

"Guys, where do you think the shavings that we put on our cookies or in our cookies come from?" They stop looking at me weirdly, and I smile at her. She smiles back.

"Alright. Tomorrow we'll all go with Danny to get drinks," Mr. Lancer says, and everyone sighs in relief. "For now, everyone get some sleep."

Honestly we're all too tired to set up watch, until Dante takes the first shift with a wry smile. None of us even really bother to move into the huts, and instead we just sprawl out where we had been sitting.

_"The search and rescue teams are still hunting for where the Boeing 767 went down. Tropical Cyclone Travis is extremely large, though, and it was still extremely large when the plane went down in it. Local parents are holding prayer groups in local churches as they prey for their children, and their neighbor's children to come home."_

Maddie shut off the TV, looking down and leaning into her husband. Jazz was sitting on the other side of Jack, crying into his arm. Their dinner sat forgotten on the table.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm the first one awake, and I just lay there staring up at the stars. There was a pink tinge on the horizon where the sun would be rising soon, and even though I had drank some water yesterday it wasn't enough. I need more, and I swallow, wincing at the dryness. Then I wince again, this time for the sake of the people who didn't get anything to drink yesterday. At that thought, I shove myself to my feet. Paulina is waking up, too, stretching and yawning. Her back is popping something fierce. The sound of her back popping wakes Kaitlyn and Star, who both prop themselves up on their elbows. Getting a good look at them, I realize that Star has a faint sunburn and Kaitlyn has a few bug bites on her face. They catch me looking, and I turn away at the sound of their giggles.

Their giggles starts a chain reaction, everyone slowly waking up. After a few moments of lying there, I watch Mr. Lancer stand up.

"Alright! Everybody up!" He calls, and I chuckle. Everybody is already getting up- even before his call, we were all getting up. Standing up and walking over to him, I look worriedly over to where someone isn't getting up. Rachel, another volleyball player like Stacey is not getting up. Her eyes are half-lidded, and I walk over and crouch down next to her.

"Hey. You gonna get up?" I ask, and she closes her eyes. Frowning, I look over at Lancer. "Rachel's dehydrated. I was also thinking, maybe Paulina could take everyone who got something to drink yesterday to the coconut trees." Paulina nods, looking thoughtful.

"And you'll take everyone else to the river, right?" She asks, and I nod.

"It looks like we have a plan then," Lancer says, and we nod and start splitting into our groups. I pick up Rachel, carrying her piggy-back style, and her arms weakly wrap around my chest.

"We're going to have to push it hard," I say, and I hear groans as I start to lead them off. "If we don't go fast enough Rachel could die." That speeds them up, and we push on hard.

As we climb up the slope, and make our way over the rocks and mud, I have to slow down since the people I'm leading are weakened with dehydration. They're trying hard to keep it going fast, and I know that. Still, I'm anxious to speed up.

We're honestly making better time than I had with Jordan, Dante, and Stacey yesterday. Picking up the pace again as rocks that turned under our feet turned to solid stone and damp dirt, I notice the set of tracks from yesterday as I hear the waterfall again. I press them harder, and no one complains. The thought of Rachel not making it is fresh in everyone's minds. And then when everyone can hear the rushing water, we pick the pace up even faster. When we leveled out on flat ground, I held my arm out.

"The stone's wet, so don't run. Wet stone is very slippery, and if you slip and fall here you could die," I warn. "There are cliffs- very high cliffs- that drop straight into rocky ocean." I let my arm down, and everyone carefully picks their way to the river. I set Rachel down where the river rushed out of the forest, and lean her up against the rock. The unfamiliar motion wakes her up, and I cup my hands to gather water and pour into her mouth. She gulps the water greedily, and I hold back so she doesn't get sick. Some of the water spills down her chin, but she doesn't mind. Instead, when she's had enough, she grabs my arm with a smile.

"Thank you," she whispers, and I nod.

"You're welcome," I reply, smiling back. Everyone is finishing up with their drinks, and so I pick her up. This time her arms wrap more strongly around my chest, and we begin to pick our way down the slope. It's only about mid-afternoon by the time we reach the camp, and when we do it is to a rather unpleasant surprise. Jordan, holding a long stick, is flipping a snake away from her with it. Setting Rachel down- who grabs onto nearby Dash- I start to sprint over, pulling out my knife and ignoring cries telling me to stop. Faster than any of them think possible, I pounce on the snake, grab it behind its head, and slice with my knife. The head comes off, and Valerie starts walking over.

"Anyone in the mood for snake?" She asks, and there are nervous chuckles that make their way through the class.

"That actually sounds kind of good right now," Thalia, a goth, says, smiling. Her makeup is no longer smeared over her face, and the black hoodie she always wears is tied around her waist.

"Sure, I'll try some," Dash says, picking up Rachel bridal style and walking over. He sets her down so her back rests against a rock and walks over to relieve Paulina of the three coconuts she is carrying. She smiles at him thankfully, and that's when we notice that some of the people that went off to find coconuts are carrying bananas.

"Where did you find bananas?" Sam yells, looking so happy.

"They were close to the coconut trees," Star replies. "Dante and Kaitlyn climbed up to get them- and the coconuts, since yesterday we just grabbed what was on the ground."

"What an awesome feast we shall have tonight," Tucker says, plopping down on the sand and rubbing his hands together. "Think you can hook me up with some of that snake?"

"Maybe," I reply, smirking.

"How about I cook it," Kyle offers. "I was in cooking class."

"How about we all find sharp sticks, Danny cuts it into pieces, we skewer it, and we each cook it ourselves," Dante suggests. "That would be easiest." Lancer, who is standing to the side, looks so lost since he's not in charge. He also looks more than a little proud. And a little disbelieving.

After a few moments of discussion, Jason ends up crouched next to me in front of a flat rock as I lay the snake down on it and position the knife towards the stump where the head used to be.

"Do you even know how to skin an animal?" He asks, and I shake my head as I start to cut. "Then let me," he replies, taking the knife. "I've gone hunting before." I watch as he expertly slices the skin off of the meat, then slices the meat off the bones. There's enough meat for everyone to have a good sized piece, and we just leave the bones on the rock as we carry the meat back on the skin.

Everyone has found their sticks, and are staring at us as we walked back.

"That is gross," Paulina says, wrinkling her nose with a sort of amused look. She's the first to skewer a piece of snake, and everyone follows her lead.

"I'll be right back," I say to Jason, and I run off towards the ocean where I crouch down and wash the blood off of my knife. Standing back up, I run back to the group in time to grab my little spear and skewer my piece. Finding a spot at the fire, I pass the knife to Sam who gets to work puncturing the coconuts and passing them around. She's not as efficient as I was, but then again she doesn't have ghost-augmented strength. There are a good number of people who grabbed bananas, and Sam hands coconuts to those without bananas. When I get my coconut, I clamp my stick in between my legs and smile up at her.

"Thanks," I say, and she grins.

"That's seven," she says back. I sip the water out of the coconut while my snake still cooks, and then I bang the coconut on the rock next to me until it breaks open. It exposes the white meat, and when Sam is done with the knife she passes it to me so I can scrape meat out of the shell. Scraping it out and leaving the pieces loose in the shell, I pass the knife to Jason so he can scrape the meat out of his coconut.

Pulling the stick with the snake closer to me, I inspect the meat. It's mostly cooked, so I let it back closer to the fire and instead grab one of the pieces of coconut and munch on that until my meat's done cooking. Pulling the stick back closer to me, I see that it's done cooking so I take a bite out of it. It is slightly blackened, but I just ignore it. Swallowing my bite, I look to see no one else has taken a bite of their snake yet.

"Tastes like chewy chicken," I say, and they laugh and start taking bites from theirs. There are some who don't like it and pass it to their neighbor, and there are some that really like it and take it from their neighbor who doesn't like it. I kind of like it- it's not bad, but it isn't pizza. Finishing off my snake and coconut, We all watch the sun set as Dash takes the first watch. One by one we fall asleep, eyes closing and soft snores drifting in the night.

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_"Search efforts have found a small amount of survivors from the Boeing 767 crash, including two Casper High students. There have been five confirmed deaths- Mikayla Gaughrie, one of the high schoolers, confirms that her twin Meghan drowned and that fellow classmate Jack Michaelson was bitten by some sort of poisonous snake. There are still about 219 confirmed missing."_

Jazz picked at her food, relieved that her brother wasn't one of the dead but still- not knowing was horrible. Looking up at her parents, she saw that her mother was leaning against her father.

"Please come home," Jazz whispered.

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**Again, please ignore the OOCness and thanks to everyone who faves, follows, and reviews!**


	4. Chapter 4

I roll over and groan, rubbing my forehead. I've just finally realized how badly we all stink. When I open my eyes, I see Dash standing over me. Jumping up and over a couple of my sleeping classmates, I land on my feet in the sand, breathing hard. Dash approaches, looking a little sheepish.

"So, I've seen your belt. What's in it?" He asks, rather cautiously.

"Um… Black paint, some cord, a few bobby pins, some paperclips, I think I put some parts of a lockpick kit in there…" I reply.

"Did you say cord?" He asks, and I nod. "Maybe we should try to make some sort of fishing net out of it."

"We could try," I say, reaching down and pulling out the length of cord. I unwind it, and look at it rather judgingly before I sit next to him and we start knotting.

It's a few minutes before anyone else starts waking up, with Paulina popping her back like normal. She's the first to notice me and Dash sitting together, and she walks over.

"Where'd you get the cord?" Is the first question she asks.

"Danny has this belt he has some stuff in, like paperclips," Dash replies, and I nodd.

"I don't have much in there, and yes. I was taking cues from Batman and Robin," I tell her, smiling. She sits down next to me.

"That's cool," she says, and watches us as we finish it.

"Now that I think of it," Dash says, "Aren't the fish generally farther out in the ocean?"

"You're right," I reply, frowning. "Maybe the river has fish in it."

"That's possible," Paulina says, and we get back up and head back over to the camp where everyone's circled around the firepit. Jason is talking.

"We should focus on getting people armed, in case of another snake," he says, and Rachel nods. She's looking better today, actually awake and not dehydrated.

"Maybe we should start figuring out how to carry water and other things around," Jayden suggests. "Or move our camp up to the river."

"That would be a little too much work," Stacey replies. "We'd either have to disassemble the huts and carry them up there, or build new ones."

"You're right," Jordan continues. "Maybe some of us could try weaving baskets to carry bananas and fruit and coconuts in?"

"Yeah, we just have to find grasses and dry them," Thalia replies.

"We could use tree bark. I think they have made baskets of tree bark," Sam counters. "Or we could try vines."

"Well, I think while some of you are trying to make baskets some of us should continue exploring," Valerie says, shifting. "We don't know what other edible things or dangerous things are out there."

"I'll go with you," Dante volunteers.

"Me too," Shasta says.

"Alright, we should get going," Valerie says, standing up. Dante and Shasta follow suit, following her into the forest.

"Alright, so who's going to try to make baskets?" Sam asks.

"I will!" Jordan says, and Thalia nods.

"I think I'll lead another group up to the river," Dash says, and I hand him the net we made. He stood up and started leaving, followed by a good half of the group.

"I'll take some of you to go get more coconuts and bananas," Paulina says, and I stand up to go with her. She leads us through a skinny path that makes me thank whatever powers that be that I'm skinny. When we reach the coconuts and bananas, while people are climbing the trees I notice some more fruits.

"Is that starfruit?" I ask, and Paulina shrugs.

"I don't know what it is, so I never got any," she replies.

"I'll get one and bring it back to Sam," I reply, walking over to the tree and climbing up it. I grabbed the first fruit I came to, pulling it off the tree and then climbing down to help grab more fruit.

Twisting through the forest, I'm surprised how we make it through the natural obstacle course with as much as we're carrying. For the first time I really notice that we've actually gotten skinnier. One meal a day and physical activity can do that, I guess.

When we walk back onto the beach, we check the sky and notice that it's barely noon. We're getting faster at making our way around the island, and so we happily make our way to the camp to set down our load and head back for more. Sam had given us the go-ahead on the starfruit I had brought back, and so this time I climbed up the tree to grab some more and drop them down into waiting hands. Climbing back down, I picked up a coconut and some bananas, and took up the rear of the group as we wove our way back to the beach. It was nearing sundown, and when we set our load down some of the girls and a few guys helped with the basket-making. There were a few sloppy baskets on the ground, and I started the fire as the river group came back. Dash was holding the net, where a couple of silver fish hung. Tucker's grin was really, really wide.

The sun had fully set when we stopped to make sure everyone was here. Not everyone was.

"Valerie's group hasn't come back yet," Star says, worry in her voice.

"I'll go look for them," I volunteer, standing up. Jason and Jordan stand up too.

"We'll go with you," they say, and I nod, slightly inhappy. I could've moved as fast as I wanted to but oh well. Vanishing into the forest where Valerie, Shasta, and Dante had, I lead my group through the night, my sight seeing the tracks that they couldn't in the night. The moonlight also helps to light our way, until we didn't need to track.

There was a scream. Shasta's scream, and I picked up the pace. There were more yells and screams, Dante's and Valeries, and a blast of green light. We finally reach them, seeing Shasta cornered by a tiger with a burned spot on its shoulder. Not really thinking, I jump down with a yell on top of it. It roars and rolls over, crushing me against the ground. My breath was forced out of my mind but my knife's out and I'm on my feet as the sounds of the forest fade until it's just me and the tiger. My eyes meet its eyes, predator meeting predator, and it charged. I dodged, throwing a punch and hitting its flank. There's a crack- I think I broke its rib- and there's a roar of pain. It turns and charges me again, this time favoring its side. I attempt another dodge, but its ready and it pins me, its claws digging into my shoulder.

Now's my chance. I see the jugular in its neck, pulsing with every beat of its heart, and my knife arm is free. It may be bleeding, but it's still free. I bring my knife towards its neck, and too late it starts to rear away but the blade of my knife bites into its neck, slicing open the jugular and windpipe. With a roar, the tiger collapses on top of me, lifeblood draining all over my clothes and the light dying in its eyes. I can begin to hear my friends, and feel the pain in my shoulders from where the claws dug in.

"Danny! Danny!" Valerie's yell finally makes it through to me, and I focus in on her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm bleeding a little and I have a tiger on top of me… But other than that, I think I'm fine." Dante and Jordan and Jason are working on removing the dead beast on top of me and Shasta pulls me to my feet. I wince, and they see the tears in my shirt and the blood coming from my injuries. Valerie removes my bloody shirt, ignoring my wince, and then tears strips from her shirt to tie under my armpits and over my shoulders to act as bandages.

"You know… This could feed everyone for, like, days," Jason says, and Jordan nods. The two of them and Dante start to drag it towards where we came from. I start to take the lead, and everyone just follows.

We have to take it slow, what with three of us dragging around a dead tiger, and we reach the camp well after midnight, during the darkest hours of the morning. Thalia, who's on watch, sees us coming and walks over with a raised eyebrow.

"That… Is a tiger," she says. "And Danny… Is shirtless." Untying her sweatshirt from around her waist, she tosses it to me and I pull it on with a little bit of wincing. "You were attacked by it, apparently. Um… Are we going to eat it?" Jason nods.

"Yes," he elaborates, since it was too dark for her to have seen.

"Okay. That will be interesting," she says, and helps drag the tiger over to the camp. After we're there, the six of us curl up around the fire ring and drift to sleep.

* * *

_"Another, slightly larger group of plane crash survivors has been found. Among them is Casper High student Lester Langis. Also confirmed dead are Nathan Langis and Mikey Cooper. The search is still on."_

Jazz was in her room, watching the news on her computer with a sigh. She had just finished a post on the facebook page for the people still waiting for news on their families, and there were people already replying to her post.

There was going to be a vigil the next night, and she was going.


	5. Chapter 5

I almost roll over before I groan in pain. While the pain from the claw wounds on my shoulder isn't as sharp as last night, it's a dull ache- which in my opinion, is worse. Sitting up and opening my eyes, I notice Sam crouching next to me.

"Why are you wearing Thalia's sweatshirt?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Um… My shirt was really bloody, so we left it in the forest," I reply.

"Really bloody?" She asks, looking worried.

"Um… There was a tiger," I reply, and point in the direction of where we left the body. Jason had somewhere along the line removed the knife from my belt and is working on cleaning the carcass. A couple of people are watching him, and someone has already started a fire. Thalia is sitting next to Rachel, nibbling on one of the leftover starfruit. Lancer is standing, also nibbling on starfruit except a lot more voraciously. I get myself to my feet and walk over, followed by Sam. Lancer's eyes catch me wearing Thalia's jacket but he doesn't press as I sit down next to Jason to watch him dismember the tiger.

"If anyone wants to get their skewers, you can start putting some kabobs together," he says, and some of us wander off to grab our sticks- including me. Since most of the leftover coconuts already have the water cleaned out, we break them open, avoiding the pile of not-drained coconuts and use pieces of shell to scrape out chunks of meat and skewer them, along with some starfruit before we get tiger meat on the sticks and start cooking. Honestly, it smells really good. I can't wait for mine to finish cooking, and while fidgeting, I keep pulling it closer to my face to check. When the outside of the meat and fruit is crisp and black, I start to eat.

Yes, it's hot, and yes, it burns my tongue, but it's delicious. Everyone finally gets their own kabobs made and cooks them, the knife still with Jason. And from the looks on their faces, everyone loves the kabobs. It has a smoky taste, and the tiger meat is not all dissimilar to a mixture of beef and chicken. The coconut is sweet, and the starfruit a little sour. But the food all vanishes into our mouths quite fast, and Jason returns to the carcass to continue cutting the meat into chunks. Everyone splits into groups, and a few of us stay at camp. Jason looks up at the maybe five of us standing around him.

"Alright, get green palm fronds on that fire. Get it down low first. Once it's all low and there's green stuff burning, wrap the meat up in palm fronds so none of it gets ashes and stick the meat packets in the ashes," he orders, and we hurry to do as he says. I head with Jayden and Hailey, a flute player, to toss sand over the fire to get it down low. Once it is pretty low, Thalia comes over to throw some green sticks on it and a few torn-up palm fronds while Ginger, a girl with a tattoo of an eagle on her arm, carries some whole fronds over to the tiger and Jason. We get to work wrapping the meat chunks in the fronds, ignoring the meat juices we get on our hands. Hailey carries the packets to put next to the fire, while Ginger watches them to make sure they don't burn. We work diligently through the day, until the entire carcass is gone. Well, at that point we think we worked the whole day until we look at the sky.

It's only noon.

After the tiger attack, the groups also started getting bigger- no one wants to be with too few people. Taking the knife from Jason, we all walk to the nearby ocean to was the blood off of our skin. The water is nice, and Jayden is the first to remove his shirt and shoes and run into it. Jason follows suit, and then eventually Thalia, Hailey, and Ginger are splashing in the ocean in just their bra and pants. I stay crouched down by their clothes until Jayden walks over to me.

"Dude, you gonna join us?" He asks, and I shake my head.

"Salt water burns if you have an open wound," I reply, and he nods. They are eventually driven out of the water when their feet get cut up and start to hurt. I walk with them back to camp, laughing along beside them about when Ginger tripped over Jayden to fly face-first into the water. A group lead by Paulina has already deposited some fruits at the camp, and has probably headed back to the grove to get more.

The sun is barely starting to set when they return, and Hailey and Jason are gingerly fishing the packets from their spots and opening up. The packets are nice and brown on the outside, and look delicious. I can smell their scent- a scent that honestly smells so amazing to me right now. We're waiting for the water group to return to cook our kabobs, but honestly they are taking a long time. When they finally return, Dash has more fish and some of us eat fish instead of tiger. After everyone finishes, we sit around the fire and just chat- like we haven't in however many day's we've been on this island. I sit next to Sam and Tucker. Tucker had deposited his gadgets on the second or third day next to one of the huts, and Sam was actually eating one of the fish with a very trepidatious look on her face as she took small bites of it. A group of us had also moved the tiger carcass off somewhere to rot, and they were just returning from washing off.

"We spent some of the time washing off in it," Dash says. He's sitting next to Paulina and Star, who have every day gone to the fruit. He's telling them about what they were doing at the river, smiling. Thalia and Ginger were also sitting near him.

When we finally fall asleep, we don't really expect anything to happen overnight.

Of course, we're proven wrong when Kaitlyn, who was on watch, screams. There's another snake, slithering towards her and I'm barely awake. My shoulders are still protesting as I crouch down. There's another distinct scream- this one pained, when the snake strikes. Not wasting another second, I leap over to the snake but miss as it slithers by. I land on the ground, and it turns to try lunging at me. I barely dodge the fangs, then jump and land hard on its spine. Jason joins me in pounding its spine with our feet, while Kaitlyn sits and cries into Paulina and Star's arms. Once the snake was dead and its head removed, I crouch down next to Kaitlyn and look at the bite. It's already swelling. Not a good sign, not a good sign at all. She was panting, and Jason started ripping strips from his shirt and tying them around her leg over the injury- a nice notion, but since I saw the snake- a cobra- she needed a hospital.

No one is in any mood to cook this snake up and eat it.

"Dear Lord, please bring our children, our cousins and brothers and sisters and grandchildren, home." The reverend had been praying, and Jazz found herself praying.

The church was packed, and everyone held a candle. Everyone was silent, and everyone was sitting extremely close to a stranger, but they were all one in their longing for their missing students to come home. They were awake all night, staring out the stained glass windows and hoping beyond hope. In the Fenton household, neither of the elder Fentons were watching TV. They were sitting together on their bed, crying and sobbing and holding each other. In the Manson mansion, Pamela and Jeremy were alone in their grief- Pamela in her daughter's room, and Jeremy in the bar room. Mr and Mrs. Foley were together in their kitchen, gripping each other's hands and praying. In the Masters' estates, Vlad sat in his chair, stroking Maddie, and mentally apologizing for all the times he had hurt Danny. He was resolving to stop chasing after Maddie Fenton and to stop trying to get Danny to join him and renounce his father. If only the fates would bring the other halfa back, he would stop the abuse.

No one in Amity Park was partying. They were all waiting with bated breath.


End file.
